Saturday, August 09, 2014

A federal judge here dealt a major blow Friday to the NCAA and its long-held value of amateurism, ruling in an antitrust case that the association's policies banning athletes from profiting from their own names, images and likenesses "unreasonably restrain trade."

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ruled five weeks after the conclusion of a bench trial in the case brought by former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon on behalf of Division I men's basketball and football players.

The NCAA had argued the "procompetitive benefits" of prohibiting athletes from sharing in the multibillion-dollar collegiate sports industry justified the long-held policies, but Wilken disagreed.